Peak Oil Blues and Panglossian Disorder

On our show we've introduced you to the Transition Towns movement - a global positive community-level response to climate change and peak oil. Peak Moment TV deals peak oil, climate change, and institutional, community, and personal responses every week. We'll likely be talking to them on the air later this semester.

To whet your appetite, watch this episode. Janaia Donaldson interviews psychologist Kathy McMahon who wondered if she was "a whacko" when she had such a strong flight reaction to learning about peak oil. But she's also found other reactions, a Panglossian Disorder where people believe that some techno-magic fix will save existing civilization as it is. She thinks that people can find real comfort and real action and real meaning in moving toward locally resilient communities. You can learn more about her work at Peak Oil Blues.



What about you? What are you doing?

Moving on

A few months ago, we hosted Katherine Watt of the local Transition Towns initiative on the show. We talked about energy decline and climate change as opportunities for local, regional, and cultural transformation.

As a follow up, you can check out her recent piece in the Centre Daily Times, "Transition planning moves on":

What ideas are lying around for us? There are two dominant competing visions of the Centre County future. One is thousands of drill towers, concrete pads and pipelines ripping down the woods; thousands of semis rumbling along formerly quiet country roads; potential widespread water contamination and depletion; carbon flying skyward; and a steady flow of gas and profit heading east to investors in New York, London and other world financial capitals.

The other vision is food, farms and forests, and no matter how many times the drilling proponents repeat their reassuring lies, once the water’s a mile underground or contaminated, it’s unusable. Once the trees and roots are gone, so are the living ecosystems they support.

My friends working in the local sustainability movement say people “get it.” They’re sick of the talk and want to see more action. Transition planning, as pioneered in England by Rob Hopkins, has a dozen or so interwoven components for building resilient communities for the post-carbon age.

Read more here.

Two things come to mind: First, what are you doing to work toward this transition? Second, do you know how to get involved? If you don't, you can start by connecting with Transition Centre!